Photographed by Liz Hafalia, San Francisco, California
Officer Chris Olocco with horse Officer AAA. The San Francisco Police Department's Mounted Patrol Unit is the second oldest and continuous police horse division in the nation, patrolling the streets of San Francisco since 1874. Photographed by Liz Hafalia on 9/19/05 in San Francisco, California.
Photographer Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle
SF police horse patrol trades in hats for helmets
S.F. POLICE Equine patrol officers join other cities, trade in hats for protective helmets
Updated 11:29 am, Thursday, July 5, 2012
Jeff Roth reckons he has the best job in San Francisco, even though it just changed for the first time in generations - and if the gaggle of adoring children who hang around him is any indication, he may be right.
He punches in to work every day at Golden Gate Park at historic horse stables surrounded by pines. The noisiest sound as he sips his morning coffee is an occasional whinny or the cheeping of baby birds nesting above the stables' doorways.
The toughest part of his job is riding his 13-year-old quarter horse, Rusty. And that's only if you can call enjoying every second in the saddle tough.
Roth is part of the second-oldest mounted police unit in North America. Only New York, which started its horse force two years before San Francisco did in 1874, has an older one.
Once, before the age of automobiles, the mounted unit numbered in the dozens. Now it's down to nine officers, and they still do their jobs the same way they've been done for 138 years - with one new exception.
Officer Jeff Roth talks with a visitor to the stables in Golden Gate Park. Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle
New helmets
Six months ago, for the first time, the mounted officers were required to wear helmets instead of traditional cloth policeman hats, joining their counterparts in New York, Chicago and other cities.
The last head injury on the force came in 2008 when an officer fell off his horse. He recovered and is still riding, but the incident got administrators thinking about the ramifications of plunging without a brain bucket on from a 6-foot height off a 1,200-pound creature.
Skiers and bicyclists got on the helmet bandwagon in recent decades; the police brass figured it was time to climb on, too.
"Just like riding a motorcycle, it can be a dangerous endeavor," said the unit's Lt. Mike Favetti. "Personally, the helmet's not as comfortable as wearing a soft cap, but if I fell off the horse, I'd be very glad to have it."
The office walls at the 1937 vintage stables - tucked into a grove near the Polo Field - are lined with unit photos dating back to the 1870s. Place one of those alongside today's mounted cops, take off the helmet, and there is no discernible difference.
"Everyone who comes into these stables says we have the best job anywhere, and that's how we feel, too," Roth, 52, said one recent morning as he got Rusty ready to ride. A few feet above his head, a mother barn swallow swooped in and stuffed worms into four hungry chick mouths.
"Where else does that happen at your job?" he said. "This is just a happy place to be."
Sonny's bridle has a metal decorative star identifying him as part of the San Francisco Mounted Unit in Golden Gate Park. Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle
Still draw stares
That happiness travels with them, judging by the gleeful exclamations from adults and children alike as they clop through town on patrol.
The next reaction from almost everyone is the same, whether it's homeless junkies in the Tenderloin, office workers downtown or kiddies by the beach.
"Can I pet him?" asked 6-year-old Cooper Dong as Officer Wade Bailey rode his 9-year-old paint horse, Sonny, by the Polo Field.
"He'd love that," said Bailey, 56, who grew up working ranches in Wyoming and last month was named best horseman in the state in the annual mounted patrol competition in Folsom.
Cooper's mom, Annadel Dong, looked on in mild wonder. Cooper got a lick on the neck from Sonny in return.
"It's not just a nice way for the children to see policemen," Dong said. "It's nice to know policemen are still going through the park and the city like this, on horses. Makes you feel safer somehow."
Not just PR
Kids, and even grown-ups, get a free silver "Mounted Unit" sticker while they pet the horses, and the officers say that sort of goodwill is a big part of the job.
"A horse is a great icebreaker," Roth said. "Even in the worst neighborhoods of the city, people want to pet them and remember how they rode them as kids, that kind of thing. It makes our jobs a lot easier."
But these aren't just PR critters walking around. Horses are still uniquely useful for police work, the officers said. That's why a half-dozen big cities and every county in California still maintain mounted patrols.
"You can go places a motorcycle can't, over logs and up rocky trails," Roth said. "Plus, you're much higher up on a horse, which can be an advantage in many ways, including with crowds."
At the first Outside Lands concert in Golden Gate Park in 2008, Roth and two of his colleagues came upon two dozen youths tearing down a fence to crash the show. This might have resulted in a clash with officers on foot, but being mounted made it easy.
"We just rode up and herded them like cattle," Roth said. "The trouble stopped fast.
"There is nothing like a good horse."
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